79: Hungarian Transports

79 years ago (May 14, 1944) the main phase of Deportation of Hungarian Jews began.

Between May 14^th and July 9^th 420,000 people were deported in 142 trains to the Auschwitz Death Camp in German-Occupied Poland.

Around 330,000 of them were murdered immediately in Gas Chambers.

The Germans documented the Deportation and Selection Process of the Hungarian Jews in the “Auschwitz Album” taken in the Spring/Summer 1944.

The Album has 56 pages and 193 photographs.

The Album's survival is remarkable, given the strenuous efforts made by the Nazis to keep the "Final Solution" a secret. Also, remarkable is the story of its discovery.

Lili Jacob (later Lili Jacob-Zelmanovic Meier) was selected for work at Auschwitz-Birkenau, while the other members of her family were sent to the Gas Chambers. Auschwitz was evacuated by the Nazis as the Soviet Army approached in January 1945. Jacob passed through various Camps, finally arriving at the Dora Concentration Camp, where she was eventually liberated.

Recovering from illness in a vacated Barracks of the SS, Jacob found the Album in a cupboard beside her bed. Inside, she found pictures of herself, her Relatives, and others from her community. The coincidence was astounding, given that the Nordhausen-Dora camp was over 640 km (400 miles) away and that over 1,100,000 people were killed at Auschwitz.

The Album's existence had been known publicly since at least the 1960s, when it was used as evidence at the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials.

Nazi-hunter Serge Klarsfeld visited Lili in 1980 and convinced her to donate the album to Yad Vashem. The Album's contents were first published that year in the book The Auschwitz Album, edited by Klarsfeld.

 

The Auschwitz Album

Arrival: In the photos we see the Men, Women and Children step out of the overcrowded train, traumatized and fearful after their horrendous journey. They have no clue that they have just been delivered to a Death Factory and that few of them will survive.

Selection: The Selection Process carried out by SS Doctors and Wardens took place 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, as train after train unloaded its human cargo. Most Jews were sent immediately to their death. Men were separated from Women and Children and those selected for Forced Labor separated from those selected for death.

 

Selected for Slave Labor: "Still Able-Bodied Men and Women": The Jews chosen for Slave Labor have become Prisoners of Auschwitz. Their personal belongings were confiscated, their hair was shaved and a Registration Number was tattooed on their left arm.

Kanada: The work of sorting the possessions that the Jews brought with them to Auschwitz was done by Jewish Prisoners who were forced to collect the packages and sort the items that would then be sent to the Reich. By the time the sorting was completed, most of the previous owners were already dead.

Last Moments before the Gas Chambers: Those selected for death were told they were going to take Showers to disinfect them before they were going to a “Family Camp.” In the Spring/Summer of 1944 the Gas Chambers couldn’t keep up with the thousands upon thousands of People selected for death so many had to wait outside the Gas Chambers in a Grove. When the Gas Chambers were available the Men, Women and Children walked into a Undressing Room where they removed all of their clothing and placed on hooks and were told to remember the number so they could reclaim their clothes after their shower. They then went naked into the Gas Chamber were the gas was thrown down from the ceiling and within 15 minutes 2,000 People were gassed to death.

The dead bodies were removed by the Sonderkommando (Prisoners forced by the Germans to work in the Gas Chamber and Crematorium) who had to cut the hair and remove the gold teeth of the dead before putting them into the furnace or on a pile of fire outside.